Skip to main content

Is Telemachus a "Naturally Gifted Orator?" The Case of Od. 2.40-79

By David F. Driscoll

In his opening speech to the Ithacan assembly at Od. 2.40-79, Telemachus seems to work against his own interests by insulting his prospective helpers. Heraclides of Pontus (F 102 Schütrumpf) was the first to see the problem, noting that though Telemachus should supplicate to gain the Ithacans’ support, he instead rebukes them.

Incense Offerings in Homer: An Unrecognized Religious Activity?

By William Bibee

In this presentation, I will examine the Iliad and the Odyssey for heretofore unrecognized instances of incense offerings. Telemachus' sea voyage, accompanied by religious activities described with the verbal roots thýō and spendeîn in Od. 15.256-264, offers us a rare glimpse into early Greek seafaring ritual. By misinterpreting the Homeric evidence concerning the root thy- and its associated words, scholars have often wrongly assumed that Telemachus was offering animals upon the shore.

Pandora and the Pandareids: The Struggle to Define Penelope in Odyssey 18-20

By Rachel Lesser

In Books 19-20 of the Odyssey, Penelope twice invokes the daughters of Pandareos in relation to herself, first in a simile and then in a prayer. These references are in fact the only two mythological exempla that Penelope employs in the entire epic (McDonald 1997, 3); this suggests their crucial importance to interpreting Penelope’s self-presentation. Focusing on the second passage, I read the Pandareids as mythical models invoked by and for Penelope to compete with other mythical paradigms foisted upon her by male characters and the external narrator.

The View from Hades: Tyro’s Story in Odyssey 11

By George Gazis

The Catalogue of Heroines in Odyssey 11 is one of the most fascinating and complex texts of early hexameter poetry. 19th- and 20th- century scholars often dismissed it as a later addition (Wilamowitz 1884, 147-51, Focke 1943, 217-22), as irrelevant to the rest of the Nekyia (Bowra 1962, 45-46) or as a ‘mere’ imitation of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (Page 1955, 35-39, Kirk 1962, 237). However, more recent scholars recognize that it has an important function within the wider narrative of Odysseus’ homecoming.

Nausicaa and the Delian Palm: Odysseus' Strategic Epithalamium

By Charles D. Stein

This paper explains why Odysseus compares Nausicaa to the sacred palm he visited on Delos at Od. 6.160-169. With the speech Odysseus extricates himself from a delicate position, wins Nausicaa’s sympathies, and takes an important step toward achieving his homecoming. Odysseus’ pious story quashes the sexual tension that the narrator has sown in the scene before Odysseus starts speaking and its imagery evokes epithalamic motifs that praise Nausicaa’s grace and beauty without implying any sexual threat.

Remembering Odysseus: Line-initial Memory in the Odyssey

By Stephen Sansom

This paper argues for the significance of a particular formulaic tendency in the Odyssey, namely that Odysseus is an implied referent whenever a verb of remembering, e.g. mimnêskō, occurs at the beginning of the hexameter line. Kahane (1992; 1994, 43-79) makes a similar argument for the co-occurrence of the word andra and line-initial position. This patterning, which Kahane refers to as 'pattern deixis,' anaphorically refers to Odysseus even when andra may have other, more immediate referents.